Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Jun 28/99) - It's up and running, but the Our Life in Stone project still needs help from Nunavut communities, businesses and government, say organizers.

Taking place this summer and the next, the project will provide artists from across the country with the means to leave their mark on Iqaluit.

Our Life in Stone will bring carvers from across Nunavut and the rest of the country to Iqaluit. Once here they will collaborate on a series of large carvings, on boulders and rock faces around town.

Groups of about 10 artists will come in for three two-week periods each summer. The first shift arrives in town July 9.

"We've picked about 50 spots around town, including Apex," said Beth Biggins, pointing at a map with red dots indicating the potential sites. Biggins is a member of the project committee and director of the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association.

Among the projects identified already are a memorial for tuberculosis victims in Apex and a park, with benches and sculptures, for the area between the elders' centre and the elders' home.

The project got a jump start in April when it received $154,000 from the Canada Council Millennium Fund. The committee is trying for another $140,000 under another federal program. It should know the result of that application sometime in August.

Project co-ordinator Gerri Mulley said the undertaking will require a total of about $450,000, "to bring the artists here, to house them, to feed them and to run the actual symposium."

Participating artists will also get an honorarium. Accomplished artists will receive $2,000. Young artists get $1,000.

The last two or three weeks, the committee has approached businesses for help making up the difference between what the project costs and what it's getting from government. The Nunavut government has yet to contribute anything to the project, said the organizers.

"There's been some really good support from the people who have participated," said Mulley.

Though it has not contributed cash, the Town of Iqaluit has offered the manpower and machines required to move boulders to a carving site at the Nunavut Territory Arts and Crafts Centre building, next to the Post Office.